No looking back: Sarina Wiegman is fully focused on trying to deliver World Cup glory for England in 2023
(Picture: The FA via Getty Images)Sarina Wiegman is not big on mementos. “I still have my navy suit,” she laughs, of the dugout fit that became her signature during England’s Euros success this summer - “but it’s not a collector’s item! I’m not very sensitive to those things”.
Nor is she keen on digging up the relic of her 2019 World Cup final defeat, when still in charge of her native Netherlands. “No - of course not!” she exclaims in faux horror, when asked whether she might share with her players what losing football’s biggest game feels like ahead of their attempt to win it for the first time in Australia and New Zealand next year.
There is no thought of personal redemption, either: “I’m not really about revenge,” she says. “I don’t really think that way”.
In fact, though Wiegman is sitting down at Wembley with a group of journalists for what has been billed as a reflection on her side’s epic year, it quickly becomes clear the Lionesses coach is more interested in what comes next.
“Absolutely, I think we have to get better,” Wiegman says, which is quite the demand for a team that is unbeaten in 26 matches under her leadership, are champions of Europe and beat the all-conquering USA in a showpiece friendly at Wembley in October.
“The game develops so quickly. We saw the difference between [Euro] 2017 and 2022, the styles of play changed, there were different styles of play, the tempo of the game was higher, tactically it was better, technically it was better.
“Next year, with countries from the other continents coming in… when you get further in the tournament, the level is going to be so high.”
England are not yet done celebrating their Euros success - a documentary charting the triumph was released this week and the Lionesses look likely to sweep the board at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards on Wednesday night - but the start of the World Cup is now just seven months away.
A degree of regeneration has already been necessary, with Wiegman having lost stalwarts Jill Scott and Ellen White to retirement, while star forward Beth Mead is already a doubt for Australia after tearing her ACL.
Meanwhile, Ella Toone, Alessia Russo and Chloe Kelly are pushing for leading roles after starring in the summer without starting a game, while Chelsea’s Lauren James is the headline among five debutants since the Euros. With such a small gap between tournaments, Wiegman is balancing two of her trademark qualities: ruthlessness and loyalty.
“I’m appointed to perform at the highest level with the team and if a player has developed so well that she should come into the team and she wins that competition with another player, then I will bring her in,” she says. “But it’s not a case of: ‘Today I pick this player and tomorrow I pick that player’.
“If one player has one or two bad games but they’ve performed well for six months, we’re not just going to take them out. Otherwise you create an environment of just preventing failure and that’s not what we want.”
Expectations for 2023 are sky high, nothing new for Wiegman, who has been dealing with them ever since being identified by the FA as the winner a team of perennial semi-finalists needed to take the next step.
“When I got appointed, a lot of the remarks were ‘are you going to bring it home?’ And ‘you’ve been brought in to win the Euros’, which is a lot of pressure,” she says. “I knew I was coming into an environment like this.”
More concerning for the 53-year-old is how her players may be coping, not only with the increased scrutiny that will follow them into the World Cup build-up next year, but with the way their lives have already been transformed.
“We know that when you win the pressure will be higher and higher. That’s just the way it works,” she says. “Some players are really young. Within six weeks they became famous English people. Everyone wants something from them. Your brain needs time to get used to that.
“It brings lots of good things but also some sacrifices. Some players can’t walk down the street anymore without being almost mobbed. That’s a big thing in your private life.”
Less than a year and a half after Wiegman started the job, winning the World Cup stands as something of a final frontier for this England side
Less than a year and a half after Wiegman started the job, winning the World Cup stands as something of a final frontier for this England side. Internally, though, the manager is not talking in such absolute terms, highlighting England’s exit to France at the men’s World Cup, when, she believes, Gareth Southgate’s side went out despite playing “their best game”.
“I told [my players] that before, the only thing we control is that we play at our highest level under the highest pressure,” she adds. “You can’t always control the result because the other teams, the best teams in the world are really, really, good.
“Yes, of course, we have to dream. We’re not going to a World Cup just to play, we’re going there to win.
“You’re going to be devastated by not winning, but at the end you can be proud because you did everything that’s in your control and that’s then the level you have.”
In 2022, it was enough to make history. In 2023, Wiegman and her side will try to write some more.
